Court Report: Application to change residence

This case involved a dispute between two parents regarding the return of a child, P, to Spain. P’s parents, both Spanish citizens, had been in a settled relationship for 18 years before their separation in July 2011. In 2008, P’s father was offered employment in the UK and the family moved to England. In July 2011, P’s parents’ relationship ended and the mother returned to Spain with P.

In August 2011, P’s mother brought him to the UK to visit his father. During that time, P’s father obtained a prohibited steps order preventing P’s mother from taking him back to Spain. She then filed an application under the Hague Convention. The central question was therefore whether P was habitually resident in Spain when he was retained in the UK in August. The mother claimed that the father had agreed for P to return to his school in Spain, and relied on this agreement as proof that P’s father consented to changing P’s habitual residence from the UK to Spain.

The judge clarified that the family had ceased to be habitually resident in Spain by July 2011, as the family had accepted an offer to extend the father’s contract, a school had been selected for P and the mother had extended her employment in the UK. Holman J was not satisfied that the father had agreed for P to return to Spain and held that, therefore, P’s mother could not change P’s habitual residence. The application was dismissed.

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